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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJFK Assassination Witness Speaks For 1st Time
DALLAS (CBSMiami) When President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was cut down by an assassin, a chain of events began that included the murder of a police officer, the capture of the alleged presidential assassin, and the murder of the assassin.
In the 50 years since the Kennedy assassination, one Dallas Police officer who was in the middle of the chaos that enveloped the city in the hours and days that followed the murder has never shared his story about what he saw, heard and did. Until now.
For the first time ever, R.C. Nelson, retired from the Dallas Police, talked exclusively to CBSMiami.com about the pandemonium that came after the assassins bullets rang out in Dallas. Nelson has never spoken about the events, even to the Warren Commission.
On November 22, 1963, Nelson was working out of the southwest substation in Dallas. He said that police were spread all over the city guarding multiple areas.
Only two people were working the south district, Nelson said, my partner J.D. Tippit and me. Tippit was working the entire Oak Cliff section.
http://miami.cbslocal.com/2013/11/20/exclusive-jfk-assassination-witness-speaks-for-1st-time/
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)The only thing this guy witnessed is Ruby not walking past him.
LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)It's like Oswald was deliberately leaving a trail to where he was. So much just doesn't make any sense. Obviously, there's a lot we don't know about what happened behind the scenes and we may never find out the whole truth.
exboyfil
(17,862 posts)A number of important questions were not asked. I cannot believe that he was not extensively interviewed and his statements documented at the time. In addition to being at the Ruby/Oswald shooting and being involved in the access of Ruby to Oswald, he would have known police procedures and probably what Tippit knew at the time. Why Tippit? Why the encounter that led to his death? Why all hands into the movie theater for a non-paying customer?
It is hard to relate to procedures in the 1960s but why wasn't Oswald protected more?
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)A description went out over the police radio of the suspected shooter. Tippit was patrolling the Oak Cliff area of Dallas and saw Oswald, who was a close enough match to the description (white male, early 30's, around 5'10" and 165; Oswald was 24, with a moderately receding hairline, 5'9" and about 150). He slowed his car to a stop and called Oswald over, exchanged words with him, got out of his car, and got shot by Oswald. Who was seen by multiple witnesses fleeing the scene. The answer "why Tippit" would be "because Oswald had just shot the president". The shooting of Tippit makes no sense, otherwise.
And after the shooting Oswald was wanted for shooting a police officer. The shooting of Tippit was reported on the radio. Oswald was seen acting strangely by the manager of a shoe store (ducking into a doorway and turning his back, pretending to look at something, when police cars were approaching, emerging after they'd gone past), who also saw him duck past the ticket seller at the cinema. The reason for "all hands"? They were acting on the suspicion that the man seen going into the theatre was a cop-killer.
LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)in this article said Tippit was incurious and didn't even look at people when he talked to them. He didn't believe Tippit called Oswald over to the car. So according to this witness, your version of the story would have been out of character for Tippit. You could be right; people sometimes do things that are out of character. But there is room for doubt.
Personally, I believe Oswald either shot Kennedy or he was at least one of the shooters that day. However, no one knows for sure what the motive was for the crime. There is no proof of a reason why Oswald would have done the crime, so we're left with conjecture. A lot of people did have a motive for killing Kennedy and you can't help but wonder if some of them put Oswald or Oswald and another person up to committing the crime. The motive is a mystery that likely will never be fully known.
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)Tippit sees a man who may fit that description, slows his car down, but doesn't call him over? I don't find that credible. And there's witness testimony that Tippit slowed his car to a stop and Oswald walked over to exchange words with him. That witness testimony doesn't say that Tippit called Oswald over, but that's the inference one can draw from what happened.
LuvNewcastle
(16,834 posts)Witnesses all through the day contradict each other. Then there's the problem of the unknown motive and Oswald's checkered history; seems he had connections in the CIA and Russia and Cuba. Weird shit. And then to top it all off, there's Jack Ruby. Why did he inject himself into it? If somebody wanted to confuse people, they certainly succeeded. I believe somebody did.